Help Desk System

I been looking for Help Desk system that have work flow on it , and could be
connect with some of ERP module such as procurement , budgeting .
Once the problem solved , it can be saved in the system and the system will
be collect it for Knowledge Management . So all the reporting will be print
out in the end of month , depends on the sorting .
If you find any s/w that suitable for it , please tell me about this .

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Not entirely sure what it is you are looking for, but if you are looking for
a CRM solution that builds a knowledge base, has a reporting mechanism, and
can integrate with other packages then there are lots about for you to
choose from. Two that I know of are Goldmine and Ulysses. Goldmine is based
upon contact management but has lots of other "bits" that can be coupled
together to form an overall solution. Ulysses is a more developed solution,
and can be customised to your needs. If you want to know more about either
then check the web-sites listed below.

Thanks for the input , recenly my company already use Goldmine for "Litte
CRM" . But it apparently doesn't represent Help Desk concept . Well , sorry
if in the first description I'm tell a bit wrong . Help Desk that I mean is
like a call center , where the customer can call to our call center than the
operator will input it . So the system will distribute the problem to the
right person based on the Job Desc .

Let me illustrate : the system will be on 3 tier . 1st tier : customer
complain / inquiry / anything .
2nd tier : software system that identify , delegate , etc .
3rd tier : the person that in charge to solve the problem . ( based on Job
Desc per person) , after that the problem will be capture and manage to the
DB . The problem that always been asked , will be located into such "FAQ"
(web base) . So every one can read it . The DB that manage proble can be
print out as a report ( for performance , etc) .

I just learn for Open View / service desk from HP , it seems to me that the
s/w can represent the needs . But I still need some more input , about how
to create "a world class service desk" . FYI , that the client is a big
manufacturer , they have more that 1000 user .

Dear Asakim:
Have you considered SAP/CRM?
I just finished a project where we implemented something similar to what
you are describing below. It was a sort of complaint handling system using
the CIC module of SAP/CRM. In this particular case, they did not implement
the telephony functionality. A customer called the help desk, the CSR
answered the called and input the complaint in the system using the CIC
framework. The system was integrated with SD, so the CSR entered the order
with problems and all the order and info came down. The system
automatically assigned the work based on activities. There were different
steps to arrive to the resolution of the complaint, but the workflow was
simple and smooth. The SAP/CRM system has a good reporting tool plus we
also had BW in the back-end.

Thanks for the input , recenly my company already use Goldmine for "Litte
CRM" . But it apparently doesn't represent Help Desk concept . Well , sorry
if in the first description I'm tell a bit wrong . Help Desk that I mean is
like a call center , where the customer can call to our call center than
the
operator will input it . So the system will distribute the problem to the
right person based on the Job Desc .

Let me illustrate : the system will be on 3 tier . 1st tier : customer
complain / inquiry / anything .
2nd tier : software system that identify , delegate , etc .
3rd tier : the person that in charge to solve the problem . ( based on Job
Desc per person) , after that the problem will be capture and manage to the
DB . The problem that always been asked , will be located into such "FAQ"
(web base) . So every one can read it . The DB that manage proble can be
print out as a report ( for performance , etc) .

I just learn for Open View / service desk from HP , it seems to me that the
s/w can represent the needs . But I still need some more input , about how
to create "a world class service desk" . FYI , that the client is a big
manufacturer , they have more that 1000 user .

2+ years for Siebel is not right. Your requirement can be easily met with Siebel
+ more functionality. I have worked on several Siebel projects end to end
delivery and the time scale varied from 6 months to 12 months.... which is more
realistic..!

You may also like to look at salesforce.com- browser based, fully hosted,
excellent value for money, very powerful and very easy to adapt and
integrate with XML etc to other systems. web integration links inbuilt plus
CTI, API for Enterprise Edition. They have customers with over 1000 users
already.
It has one of the best reporting systems I've seen fully integrated and
again very easy to use by any manager.
The only downside for consultants- it doesnt take very long to implement,
usually 30-60 days for this- but your client is very happy. And much better
off financially.

Goldmine does have an additional module specifically for call
center/help desk staff. It's called Heat. I did see a demo and it
looks fairly robust.

We've recently purchased SalesLogix to connect the Development,
Training, Customer Service, Tech Support, IT, Sales and Marketing
departments together. The package focuses on mid to large businesses -
I'm not sure of your budget but SLX was much more realistic for us than
Siebel. Also, the implementation time will be around 6 months.

I do have a list of additional CRM packages which met our standards.
I'd be happy to share it with you.

We did a siebel call center for 100 users with eCustomer
web portal for customers to use and log service request,
ldap web authentication, fulcrum search server, workflow
and communication manager in 6 months with siebel
mid-market.

The key is to use out-of-the-box as much as possible. Make
sure you use somebody that has done it before. The
experience is worth it.

Heat is an excellent choice for a small to medium site under 150 user and
can be deployed in less than a month - typically 2 weeks or less - but I am
not sure it can scale to 1000 users. At the high end Remedy is dominantly in
use in government telco and large manufacturing where the focus is on
service management. It is also fully ITIL compliant - a major factor for big
business wishing to deploy world class service management solutions.

I can recommend PeopleSoft CRM Help Desk. Currently we are on PeopleSoft CRM
Help Desk 8.4 and are upgrading to 8.8. We are deploying Self-Service as
well. We are an internal IT Help Desk with extremely high volumes of calls
and we have found its performance to be fast, stable and easy to manage. I
would recommend that you go to www.peoplesoft.com and make plans to attend a
RUG/SIG or other users group so that you can get more information.
PeopleSoft will hook you up with customers similiar to your size and
interest so you can evaluate well before you purchase. Cheers!

Why not choose an ITIL-compliant helpdesk that shares CRM capabilities, all
from one company that sells both families of products built on the same
platform?

I should mention that I'm biased, because I represent this vendor, but I'm
posting this entry because this "iET Solutions" company, freshly spun off
from Applix and acquired in January by Platinum Equity holding company, has
just started to market here in the U.S. our ITIL-compliant helpdesk product
that has had tremendous success especially in the Netherlands. Our
out-of-box iET Service Management solution was built from scratch, not
retrofitted from an existing helpdesk product, to comply with ITIL, and it
boasts a technology platform as robust as Remedy's but that delivers much
quicker results. If interested, drop me an email at email@removed and
I'll forward you informative, non-fluffy information about our
ITIL-compliant and CRM solutions, which are used by companies like Ben &
Jerry's, AMF Bowling, Comshare, Fleet Credit, Department of Energy, SSA
Global Technologies, Virginia Dept. of IT and Dollar General. I encourage
you to not overlook this well-kept secret just because I represent the
vendor.

I am presently working with Microsoft's (new) CRM solution. Yes, it has the standard contact management stuff for the sales end of the business.

But..it also has a Customer Service side that supports (1) Service Contracts with allotments, (2) Support Incidents (Cases) that can be (but is not required) posted against a Service Contract and (3) a Knowledge Base (for storing answers to FAQs, Issues, etc). As you might expect, you can send e-mail (via Outlook), record phone calls, faxes, apppoitments, Case Resolutions, etc.

It also has a built-in Workflow Tool so that you can build call/case Routings, Escalation processes, etc.

It also comes with the BizTalk tool so that you can integrate the CRM system to your Back Office system for invoicing, etc.

How any of you can make these types of statements without knowing more
specifics of this implementation is simply beyond me. This list is rapidly
degenerating into pro- and anti-Siebel rants, which isn't very useful to
anyone (except perhaps Siebel).

<FONT face=3D"Default Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=3D2><DIV>Hi Jon ,</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Thanks for the info . Have you use Heat ? If you ever use it , what is the different feature between HEAT and REMEDY . As per my knowledge that HEAT doesn't have work flow under the system . And it's also cannot be access as web . </DIV><br />
<DIV><br />
<br />
Best Regards , <br />
<br />
Asakim , Kwok <br />
<DIV><br />

Both Heat and Remedy support workflow and are web enabled. That is, they
allow customers to log support tickets via the web and your support agents
can access the system via a browser.

They both allow you to assign work, track the activity on those assignments,
and automate notifications and escalations.

Remedy performs much better as the complexity of the workflow grows and when
the volume of traffic (number of users) at the web grows. Also, Remedy is a
powerful development platform allowing you to build full featured
applications beyond just Helpdesk.
But we also have several hundred happy helpdesk customers for whom we have
installed (and customized HEAT)

Since this is more about Helpdesk and customer service management
I would suggest that further discussion happen directly (off this forum).

hi Asakim,
I agree that this is turning out into a Siebel ranting. I guess the main
question to see here is what is needed to be implemented the scale of the
project and the funcitonality required. One software can turn out to be too
costly and another needing too much customisation.

There are several products out there that concentrate mainly on Call Center
and knowledge managment systems or help desk systems as you put it. There
are products that can, based on teh calls you are getting or e-mails you are
receiving intelligently convert them to FAQ's and put them on a web site.
These products will solely serve the purpose of a world class Call center.
but then there is the bigger picture or a total CRM if the client is
interested in this. If he is then, you will need to look at a whole CRM
solution then just the Call center application. This is where players like
siebel come into play.

So looking at your requirement and to add to your choices is Rightnow
technoilogies, but they are good only for SME segment. Clarify is supposed
to be good in Call center among the big players (though some may say it is
not a big player). Clarify is now owned by Amdocs. Ofcourse Siebel is the
monolith but if you need a world class call center I'm not sure how well
Siebel can fit in as it can give you a world class CRM system.

And from your query and the following comments, I think you need a strategy
person with good knowledge of CRM products. Technical solution follows only
after the strategy is in place. Would be glad to know if this helps.

It's not well known yet but Pivotal has powerful workflow system developed
specially for Help Desk centers automation that is fully integrated with
Pivotal CRM.
The Pivotal completely correspond the rest requirements of this case. And it
will be much faster and chipper to implement it than Siebel and with much
more efficiency.

My main points to be concerned with are the viability of the vendor and cost
of ownership.

Someone said Siebel will take 2+ years and 10 times more cost to implement -
not true at all.
Siebel is a viable option and cost of ownership is not high if implemented
properly. Normal implementation time is 4-6 months, the same as the light
help desk vendors.

Another vendor not mentioned here you might want to consider is Front Range
Heat.

Remember, look at whether the vendor will be here in 3 years, and how many
resources are available in the market to implement and maintain it.

Can't say about Orange , but Sears U.S.A is using this
application since 1998 to support their call center
VRU - for their Credit Card busineses... moreover I
have clients such as Chase Bank, Amex AND
CSFS(Switzerland)also using this application
successfully.
One of the advantages of Pegasystems is it can
interact with all the Databases.

Although I've come across many CRMs my main experience has been with QMS's
Ulysses, as I implemented and used this at my last job before setting out on
my own.

I see you've been offered a lot of solutions (raising discussions about
Siebel, etc in the process), and I've been discussing with QMS your
described situation. The reason I was discussing with them is that I do know
that their product supports 1000+ users, it has all the elements of a
call-centre help-desk, and is easily implemented. I also know they provide
very good support, are expanding each year, and have distribution centres
all around the world (if not in your country they can deal direct or discuss
opportunities with any interested party.
Their Ulysses product is very versatile, having modules for contact
management, service desk, sales/marketing, contract management, as well as
web enabled services. They've built-in a complaint manager and an IT
auditing program.

In the arguments about which products are the best suited, there is no
absolute solution. Firstly, everyone will have their own tastes on how
they'd like a system to function and the supplier who gets a best-fit to
that taste has the best solution. I'd split the market into 3 areas, small,
mid and large.

The large players are Siebel, SAP, Peoplesoft, Clarify and Oracle, but from
my own experience (which I admit is very limited) these do not appear user
friendly nor are they easily implemented (usually requiring contractors to
run and support pre & post installation). Their market is normally the
global/corporate companies. Extensive customization is also usually
required.

Remedy, Ulysses, Astea and probably Microsoft once estasblished are the
"mid" players. There market is SME and have a much user-friendly approach,
probably because they are not large corporate companies. Customization is a
key component, and for Ulysses all modules are included in the software
package.

The Small players are like Goldmine, but their market are the small
businesses, and have different modules for different areas, which normally
have to be purchased to be combined.

One area that I think is overlooked is the facilites from which these
help-desks are run, but Ulysses does have an FMS module that integrates
completely with the CRM (is actually a part of the application..just needs
to be turned on).

Finally, in your 3 tier example I know that a lot of packages offer that
solution either directly or by combining modules. Ulysses has it their
directly
My solution to this is Ulysses as :-

Tier 1, calls can be logged via email/web as well as over the phone.

Tier 2, can recognise from database contact/customer/product and

automatically assign to appropriate group/person

Tier 3,Relevant dept/person can check for relevant calls assigned

It does have a knowledge base which grows with each call logged, and uses
Crystal Reports - can be easily defined for solution.

If you've not checked it out, then I'd suggest you give the QMS web-site a
look because you'll not only find all the information you require but you
can download a demo to "play" with.

I have visited ilient.com they are offering
something good and simple..

I would also recommend to try KiBS SUPPORT from www.kyliptix.com they also have web-support-ticket-capture that connects to the support & services module, its also have a Support Quality Assurance feature..

Hei,
I suggest Remedy with Lotus notes, they are working perfectly.
You recieve a request via eamil, automaticmo will create ticket as soon you open email and click in helpdesk.
Enjoy it... for free.
Nader Iznait
IT Consultnat

â€¦â€¦in Additionâ€¦â€¦
From ERP, I not remember came cross to create tickets from ERP straight away. But you can do it with http links if ERP supporting a 2way process.
CRM integration with Helpdesk system is working fine.
Regards,
Nader Iznait
IT Consultant

Remedy has good connectors to be linked to ERP, Oracle is on my experience, easier to be linked than SAP, talking about ERPâ€™s, but non of them has a Service Desk known very much, mostly using Contact Centers or and CRM solutions.

Remedy from BMC has been easier to customized, but all depends on how ITIL you need your Help desk solution, I suggest you check on Pink Elephant â€œPink verifyâ€ at the US site, there you will find all tools and process certified as ITIL for a Service Desk solution, also CA and HP are flexible, but depends on how much those companies and their channels are supporting in your country.

You can take a look at ServiceDesk Plus (www.servicedeskplus.com) too. Easy to install, implement and use. Is ITIL Ready with Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and CMDB. As you mentioned, the resolution to a problem/incident can automatically be appended in the built-in Knowledge Base. In built and customizable reports can be used anyway you like. It also includes Purchase Order management and Contracts management. And all this at an affordable price tag. Check it out and let me know if you need any more info.
Regards
Ashish

When I need to install helpdesk to a public sector is it different from the one for IT sector, and if its different how can I determine this issue, because when I tried to install it there was no choice to determine the specific sector I want.
and is this is the way for all siebel components?!!

Couldn't argue about you wrote about helpdesk there ftahoun, but basically
helpdesk is about help to solve problem or at least collect about the
problem occur. If we talked about helpdesk for public sectors, maybe we can
see Siebel have the solution or if for internal used in IT sector maybe CA
or touchpaper have what you need. First thing to do is determine in what
area you need the helpdesk and how big the scope you want to covered with
the helpdesk.